There's an old line among opponents of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. It says road construction funds shouldn't be used to build bike lanes and sidewalks because cyclists and pedestrians don't contribute to the gasoline taxes that fund road construction.

A bicyclist may be able to duck past high gas prices, but everyone pays for roads. Image via The Daily Green.

Josh Cohen at Network blog Publicola is refuting that argument by examining the transportation budget in Seattle, where local gas taxes play only a small role in the overall picture.

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s 2009 annual report
breaks down the agency’s $340.8 million budget by funding source. The
gas tax accounts for $13.4 million, or 4 percent of that total. The full budget breakdown (in millions):

The majority of those funds are paid for by taxes and fees levied to the general public, whether or not they own a car. It's a far cry from a system where drivers are carrying the full costs of roads.

Elsewhere on the Network, Bike Portland admires Boulder, Colorado's "Driven to Drive Less" program, encouraging the public to go carless one day per week; Seattle Transit Blog looks at the success of Tacoma, Washington's "Not on Our Bus" campaign, which seeks to make public transportation more pleasant by cracking down on unlawful or disruptive conduct on buses; and Car Free Baltimore explains why rush hour parking restrictions are bad for pedestrians.

Right, most gas taxes are used for limited access highways, which prohibit bicycles and pedestrians, and rural state roads, where they are less common. City and town streets are not funded by gas taxes, or tolls.

http://www.carfreebaltimore.com Mark

Having a “I paid for this road, too” sign on your back while biking may help.

http://wearebenfranklin.com Billy Gray

Mark, that’s a really great idea! Would make for an awesome grassroots campaign.

Perhaps reflective riding jackets that say “I paid for this road”?

Exile

this is completely the incorrect way to view the topic of bicycle infrastructure.

a closer analogy, would be this:

You and your family walk into a restaurant. The dining room is filled with tobacco smoke. You ask the host for a table in the non-smoking section. His reply is “we can arrange that, however there is a non-smoking surcharge”

You’d be outraged, if you had to purchase your protection from other’s behavior. Active transportation infrastructure is REMEDIATION, to protect from motorists. If it wasn’t for the motorists, bicycle infrastructure wouldn’t need to exist.

Royall

It doesn’t matter whose taxes pay for the roads; that’s not how taxes work. People who do not have children do not get a tax deduction for not sending anyone to school!

da

Interesting breakdown from Seattle DOT.

Is a similar breakdown available from NYC DOT?

Ed

Remember, it was bicyclist who created the road in first place till automobile came….

Roads are for people. The reason motorists pay a surcharge is that we cater to the automobile when we build roads. If all we had to contend with were pedestrians, cyclists, horses, oxen, etc. the roads would be a lot cheaper.

Scott

Actually exile – that’s a bad analogy because it’s such a good idea. If the majority of customers are smokers, a non-smoker who demands special accommodations that cost the owner extra should be the one that foots the bill.

http://www.dublincycling.com/ Colm Moore

Pedestrians and cyclists do very little damage to the road.

In city centres, cars can account for 90%+ of traffic, but only 10% of the people moving around.

Tommy

So in essence this is taxation without representation. Where are the tea baggers now?

Gene

We need to find another continent to start from scratch.

http://checkthem-out.com/hill Hill

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